I M SAFE! Are You?
Posted by Jeffrey on August 23rd, 2009
Today I was reminded about flying and health. During a trip from Denver to Eugene, my first officer said that there is a grass-root effort to get better rest conditions for flight crew members. Throughout aviation history, there are (too) many accidents that were a direct result of illness and/or fatigue. It affects your judgement and your ability to react quickly and can greatly accelerate the error chain that eventually leads to a violation or an accident.
The Airman Information Manual (AIM) states that “pilot impairment contributes to many more accidents than failure of aircraft systems.” We all worry about system problems, but do we pay enough attention to the pilot problems?
By the way, did you know that a new FAR/AIM is coming out?
The 2010 FAR/AIM Book by ASA is available for Pre-Order and Ships on Sept. 16 – The most pertinent 14 CFR Parts combined with the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM), in a convenient, handbook-sized 6″ x 9″ format. If you don’t have your copy, all you have is a history book!
Anyway, 
we have talked about it before but it is ALWAYS a good reminder that the first item for any good airman is good preparation and planning. Sure, as pilots we have to do regular physical exams to ensure that we are healthy enough to fly, but the day you want to fly starts with a pre-flight of the pilot before we even think about heading to the airport to go fly. If the pilot’s not airworthy, there is little point in worrying about all the other factors.
That is why it is so important that pilots complete the “I M SAFE” checklist before each flight. If you don’t remember what that is or have never heard it before, just like the checklist acronym GUMP (Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Pump), “I M SAFE” reminds us to check ourselves for:
+ Illness – are you sick?
+ Medication – are you taking a medication that affects you physically?
+ Stress - are you stressed out?
+ Alcohol - is alcohol a factor?
+ Fatigue – how tired are you?
+ Emotion – is there something upsetting in your life right now?
Any one of these items can affect pilot performance and decision making and only you know REALLY what your personal limits are. Often we have a small occurrence of a few of them–perhaps a little fatigue from a couple of hard days at work, maybe your throat is feeling a little scratchy, stress is creeping up on you because of work. When we think of each of these items individually, we think, “Well that’s not a big deal.”
But, when we look at the checklist, we can see that they can all be cumulative. We spend a lot of time pre-flighting our airplane but we need to spend at least a little time pre-flighting ourselves before we start the airplane.
So being healthy is more important than you think. As pilots, we owe it to ourselves to stay healthy and fit and to know our physical limitations and make great “go/no-go” decisions based on our current state.
Here are links to two terrific books on how to eat right and stay fit to help ensure that you are always fit, and always fit-to-fly. Nutrition and fitness are the keys to safe flying.
+ http://tinyurl.com/flycrj-nutrition
+ http://tinyurl.com/flycrj-nogymnecessary (free report and great for pilots)
Check them out and see if they are the right “medicine” you need to keep you healthy and fit for your next flight!
To Your Flying Success and Safety…
Jeffrey
P.S. Are you going to be flying IFR soon? Check out this terrific IFR Proficiency Series-click on the link to learn more: PilotWorkshops.com IFR Proficiency Series
